Plainfield resident Amy Colwell raising funds, awareness to help end MS through Walk MS, May 3

Amy Colwell of Plainfield, Illinois, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1990, and on Sunday, May 3, she will take part in Walk MS, the largest annual fundraiser of the National MS Society, Greater Illinois Chapter. She will be walking at the Southwest Suburbs location, Dellwood Park (1911 S. Lawrence Ave.) in Lockport, Illinois — one of 11 Walk MS sites statewide. Registration opens at 7:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 9 a.m. Walk MS brings people together to celebrate the progress and powerful connections made in the movement to end MS and to raise funds for critical MS research, programs and services.

As a person living with MS, it is important for Colwell to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which she does as an online fitness coach and through her “Pay it Forward” campaign, in which she makes a personal donation to the MS Society when customers purchase certain items from her fitness site.

“I feel great, and I encourage everybody to embrace as healthy and active a lifestyle as they are physically able to,” said Colwell. “We all deserve more good days than bad, but success begins with the choices we make and the attitude we carry.”

For Colwell, part of living a healthy lifestyle includes participating in Walk MS.

“I walk to inspire and to be inspired,” she said. “I know that I am blessed with a mild course of this disease, and as long as I am able, I will continue to lace up my shoes and walk on behalf of all those less fortunate than me.”

Colwell first participated in Walk MS in 2004, but she didn’t start her own team until 2007. Since then, her team, Aim 4 a Cure, has raised more than $40 thousand.

“My team is small, but we have big hearts,” said Colwell. “I remain humbled by the generosity of all my supporters. I am always on the lookout for new ways to fundraise, and I’m more eager than ever to ‘share the health.’ We are better for the ones we love when we are confident and comfortable with ourselves.”

Last year, more than 12,000 people participated in Walk MS throughout Illinois, raising over $2.7 million for critical MS research, programs and services.

To find out more about Walk MS 2015 or to register or donate online, contact Meghan Melone at 312.423.1138 or at meghan.melone@nmss.org, or visit walkMS.org.

Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease that interrupts the flow of information in the central nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve. The Greater Illinois Chapter mobilizes people and resources to drive research for a cure and to address the challenges of more than 20,000 individuals in Illinois and 2.3 million worldwide affected by MS.

For more information, visit MSillinois.org.